As people of African-descent, many of us know all too well the angst we go through regarding our hair ESPECIALLY if it’s really coarse and…oh I’ll just say it rather than trying to be so “P.C.”…NAPPY!

But the history of our hair in Western society has caused us to go through a plethora of changes with it from the sizzlin’ hot tools to flesh-eating, hair-breaking lye to the drippiness of “the Curl” to receding hairlines due to super-tight braids to being humiliated with weaves and a whole lot in between.

Hair by Maria Thompson 

As people of African-descent, many of us know all too well the angst we go through regarding our hair ESPECIALLY if it’s really coarse and…oh I’ll just say it rather than trying to be so “P.C.”…NAPPY!

But the history of our hair in Western society has caused us to go through a plethora of changes with it from the sizzlin’ hot tools to flesh-eating, hair-breaking lye to the drippiness of “the Curl” to receding hairlines due to super-tight braids to being humiliated with weaves and a whole lot in between.
Now those descriptions were meant for chuckles and entertainment and not as an indication that any of those styles cannot be worn successfully (or at least “semi-successfully”).

But I digress, the point I’m trying to make is…we’ve done (and many still do) a lot to accomplish one thing and that is…
TO HIDE OUR NAPS!

…To run away from the kinks and the beady-bead kitchen. We will do almost anything to get rid of them (naps)…burn them, use “chemical warfare” on them…conceal them with someone (or something) else’s hair and more.
But there is one thing that has been accused of being yet another “cover-up” for nappy hair that almost seems hard to believe and that’s locking!
Now you may be saying to yourself, “That is RIDICULOUS!” or you may be saying, “Umm hmmm…that’s TRUE!”

But there are, believe or not, a lot of people who feel that some people use locs as just another way to “deal with” their natural hair – similar to the main reason for relaxing; that there are loc-wearers out there who still have kinks in their brains even if they released them from their hair long ago.
Can it be? Can a style that seems to almost work best with the kinkiest of kinky textures; that seems to exemplify the very epitome of nappy hair; that aside from a TWA, gets the most ridicule and the least amount of love – be seen in the same light as a relaxer or hard press?

Well, I hope you realize that this is a rhetorical question. But it’s definitely something to ponder, eh?
Hmmm…

Article is writen by By Cherie M. King